Black Flag (Racing on the Edge)

by Stahl, Shey

  “You say my name like I’m some kind of god.”

  “You are.”

  “That’s right, remember that.”

  And he’s back.

  “Remember I won. Sway two. Jameson zero,”

  Jameson stood and pulled his pants up. I watched as he slowly buttoned them with that damn smirk, his belt clanking.

  God, that sound!

  “I don’t think so. You still have to walk through the announcer’s booth after what you just said. Jameson one.” He waggled his eyebrows at me and headed for the door after pulling his t-shirt back on.

  I searched the floor of his office for my panties but when Jameson got to the door, he looked over his shoulder. His hand came up, his thumb running back and forth across his lower lip as though he was hiding a secret. That’s when I notice him holding my panties up.

  “We’re tied honey.”

  5. Gasket – Sway

  Gasket – A thin material made of paper, metal, silicone, or other synthetic materials, that is used as a seal between two similar machined metal surfaces such as cylinder heads and the engine block.

  “Jameson, this is a bad idea.”

  “No...it’s not.”

  “Yes it is.”

  “No,” he shook his head kissing down the curve of my neck; my dress came up in the next motion. “It’s a good idea, a very good dirty idea. We like dirty, remember?” Jameson groaned against my neck, pushing his hips into mine. “Dirty is good.”

  Yes...I remember very well, but this in fact is a bad idea.

  There Jameson and I were up against the billboards on the other side of the track with the World of Outlaws on the track, racing the C-Feature event. Jameson would be racing in the A-Feature because miraculously, Justin brought a sprint car for him. All part of their plan I think.

  I got sidetracked, back to what’s important.

  There was nobody out here but us and on the other side of this billboard, five thousand screaming fans watching a race at a track Jameson and I ran. But here we were, going at it against the billboards.

  It’s no wonder I got knocked up.

  “Jameson...” I breathed when his mouth went to my collarbone. “We should probably get back.”

  He shook his head and growled. Fucking growled. “No,” both hands cupped my face. “I want you.” His wet cool mouth moved from my lips to my jaw, down my neck and then bit down on my shoulder.

  “You just had me not more than two hours ago.”

  “I don’t care.” He said shaking his head. “you shouldn’t have worn this dress.” Jameson’s hands reached up as though he was going to pull my panties off and then chuckled against my lips. “Oh yeah, I have those.” Another chuckle escaped him before he deepened the kiss.

  Wrapping my legs around his waist, I dug my heels into his ass. He groaned fumbling with the button of his jeans, trying desperately to free the eager camshaft. Struggling with this, he shifted my weight to one hand, pushing his leg under my ass to support me. The other one slammed against the billboard in frustration.

  “Damn it.”

  “Hey, calm down.” I reached between us. “Look here...let me help.”

  “Sorry...I just want you, right now.” He growled attacking my neck with kisses. “I can’t wait.”

  “Here...see, not that hard.”

  “I am hard!” Jameson responded defensively.

  “Jesus Christ Jameson! I was talking about getting your pants off, not your camshaft.”

  “Oh,” he mumbled positioning for boring. But he didn’t slip it in right away, instead he lubricated it, sliding back and forth against my oil slickened crankcase, teasing with reciprocating motions.

  “Jameson,” I warned. He knew I didn’t care for assembly prep. I wanted to get to the good stuff. Assembly was for virgins in my mind.

  He chuckled pressing me hard into the Coors Light billboard we were press forging against.

  It was impossible for me to record the sounds that issued from both of our mouths. Moans and groans mixed in between sounds that were so close to sobs that I would’ve been worried if I was not so focused on my own pleasure. Our eyes never broke contact and I could see the uncontained lust in Jameson’s, mirroring my own, the pale moonlight illuminating the spark between us.

  His hands never stayed in one place long, instead they lingered over my entire body, seemingly touching everywhere at one. He held me, caressed me, felt me, embraced me...it was as though his hands were trying to memorize the feeling knowing our time was limited.

  I moaned indecipherably arching my back against the billboard with a new intensity, breaking our rhythm.

  I felt him twitch at the change in pace and knew that he, too, was close. “So close...” was his assuring reply.

  The rumbling of the engines on the other side of the billboard, vibrating my entire body only heightened the sensations.

  “FUCK!” I moaned, though it sounded more like a shout or some sound a dying cat would make. Without realizing it, I pulled him impossibly closer to me, my arms around his shoulders, our chests colliding.

  Removing my lips from his, biting down on his neck, sucking as I felt the rapid beating of his pulse under my tongue. My eyes clenched together so hard I could see stars, my heart felt like it was going to explode.

  A whimper of pleasure escaped me as my orgasm coursed through me. At some point, I realized that Jameson must have too, as I could feel his heartbeat slowing, his muscles relaxing. He looked up at me from there, flushed skin under the moonlight, swollen lips, and deep purple love bite—my mark on him.

  My shaking fingers traced along it. “Sway three. Jameson two.”

  His eyebrows arched setting me down, eyeing my hair. “Nice sex hair.”

  Damn it.

  His hand brushed over my cheek, his thumb swept softly across my lower lip. A grin formed. “We’re tied again honey.”

  We made it back around to the pits after our abrupt disappearance to find Spencer smiling at us.

  “What?” Jameson snapped walking toward his sprint car to get ready for the race. “Why are you so smiley?”

  “Charlie fired the flagger. Someone needs to go flag the next race...and well...Emma is up there so...” his smile grew. “I don’t think I need to say the rest.”

  Shit!

  Jameson turned toward me. “Can you go take care of that?”

  “Why me? You’re the owner.”

  He nodded. “Yes...but you’re the general manager and well, I have to race so you get this one.” His smile matched his brother’s.

  “That’s hardly fair.” Tommy walked by and smacked the back of my head.

  “I think it’s fair.” Jameson kicked his leg out tripping Tommy. He fell forward into a set of rear tires.

  “Jerks,” I grumbled referring to him and Tommy.

  “I love you!” He shouted before climbing inside his sprint car.

  I found Emma where Spencer said she was, enthusiastically waving the flag for the B-Feature event. The rumbling in the distance of the cars lining up for the A-Feature caught my attention for a moment. When I turned around, I noticed Emma wasn’t doing a bad job. More importantly, she appeared as though she was having a good time.

  Charlie walked past, his cell phone in hand.

  “Who are you talking to?” I asked. He never talked on his cell phone unless I call it.

  “How the fuck should I know.” He grumbled throwing his free hand up in the air. “I don’t know how these people get my number.”

  “Who?”

  “The person on the other line,”

  “Oh,” I shook my head trying to make sense of all this. “Why did you fire Hank?”

  “Sway, life isn’t always shits and giggles.” His eyes narrowed making me feel like a child. “Sometimes you have to be the bad guy...or the shit.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me.” the person on the other line must have said something because Charlie was now glaring at his phone. “Who the fuc
k is this?” he paused and then said, “oh...well yes, I know a Logan and no you can’t talk to him...Why? ...because he’s six fucking years old asshole, that’s why!”

  Seeming annoyed, he hung up.

  “Where’s the little bastard Logan?” Charlie shouted.

  “Try under the grandstands!” I yelled watching him disappear into the crowd.

  And to think, we still had to get through the feature event and the concert afterwards.

  Emma continued to flag the rest of the race and actually did a good job. I ran around after Charlie making sure no one else was fired; called Hank and gave him his job back and warned Logan to stop stealing people’s phones, especially Charlie’s if he wanted to see seven.

  By the A-Feature event, I was exhausted.

  I forgot all about the exhaustion when a familiar sight, something I hadn’t seen in years, appeared. Jameson Riley, in a fire breathing winged sprint car, made his way onto his home track with the sounds of Welcome to the Jungle blaring over the speakers.

  I listened carefully as they announced the starting line-up, knowing the way my heartbeat would quicken with the mention of his name.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen...your starting line-up for the World of Outlaws...inside on the pole for the tenth time this season we have the Edan Manufacturing double zero of Jimi Riley! On the outside we have none other than his son, NASCAR Winston Cup driver, and the owner of this fine facility, driving the JAR Racing Simplex number nine...Jameson Riley!”

  The crowd roared to life, screaming in contrast to the thunderous rumbles of the track. My heart pounded watching the cars come by for the four-wide salute, a tradition created by the World of Outlaws where the cars line up four wide and make a lap that way prior to throwing the green flag. All the drivers then stick their hands out the side and wave to the crowd.

  “This is so exciting!” Emma yelled over the thunder of the engines.

  It was exciting. In all the years my dad owned this track, I’d never been up here when the World of Outlaws were on the track.

  The standard protocol for the A-Feature event are the introductions, the 4-wide salute, fireworks going off and finally the cars doing their warm up laps.

  Every time Jameson passed by the flag stand, he’d throw the car in sideways spraying dirt up for the fans.

  Fans were screaming, engines were revving, vibrating my entire body. Now I’ve never been pregnant before. And I was only fifteen weeks but in that moment, as Jameson passed by the flag stand once more and revved his engine...I felt our child inside me move. It was just a flutter, as though someone flicked my stomach but I knew it was our baby, kicking to the sound of daddy revving his engine.

  I cried. My hand clutched my stomach and Emma put her hand on my stomach too, hoping to feel it but it was so soft I could only feel it. I wanted so badly to share that moment with Jameson, but I also knew having a race car driver as the daddy, there would unfortunately be many things he would miss in our child’s life.

  The race was entertaining. Jameson, Tyler Sprague, and Justin West, battled with Jimi all race but of course Jameson pulled back and let the guys who actually ran the series weekly battle it out for the lead.

  I think he stayed up there for the first twenty laps just to prove to them he could race in the cup series and still come out to compete with the good ole boys on the dirt. More importantly, prove he could still race with the boys at his hometown track.

  As the evenings events wound down it was time for the concert.

  Gasket – Jameson

  By the time I made it up from the pits to party with my family I was one, already drunk, two, planning my prank on Emma and three, horny again. That damn dress was haunting me tonight. I couldn’t find Sway but Van assured me sure was with Emma by the stage making sure the band members had everything they needed. And the best part, she was safe with him nearby.

  When I walked toward the infield for the concert, I found my target and my accomplice. For my prank that is.

  “So here’s the plan, you distract Emma by telling her something trivial—”

  Lane raised his hand. “What tribal?”

  “Tell her about your day.”

  “That’s tribal?”

  “No Lane...it’s trivial, it’s spelled with a V not a B.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  I rolled my eyes and continued. “Just tell her something so she is looking at you, not me. I will then stand back with the monkey and shoot him through the air at her.”

  “Uh...” he looked at me with a wary expression. “Wait...you repeat my part again?”

  “Did you listen to anything I said?”

  “I’m three.” He looked up at me again with his big blue eyes and blinked in disbelieve. “I not pay attention to anything.”

  “Right. Tell me again why I chose you to help?”

  “Because I awesome!” Lane jumped, his hands over his head pumping his fists in the air.

  Eventually after explaining Lane’s part again, I got him to walk toward Emma and sit on the table she was sitting at with Sway.

  After positioning myself a good fifteen feet away in the shadows of the stage, I took the monkey out of the bag just as Spencer walked up.

  “Hey dude, Lane said he’s helping you do something tribal. I came to make sure no guns or arrows were involved.” He laughed when he saw the monkey. “She’s going to kill you.”

  When Emma was about six years-old, we went to the San Diego Zoo one summer. Spencer and I convinced Emma that the monkeys liked to be laughed at. So she pointed and laughed at them. Because of this, the monkey flung its shit at her. We laughed. Emma cried.

  Ever since then, she’s been deathly afraid of monkeys. I don’t know how flinging shit at her resulted in her fearing them but at any rate, Spencer and I had fun with it over the years.

  “That thing looks real.”

  I nodded with a grin. “I know...but what’s even better is the sound it makes.

  “What does it do?”

  “You turn it on and when it flies, it screams.”

  “This I have to see.” He said with a chuckle.

  We positioned ourselves out of the way again, Lane gave the wink, and I threw the monkey through the air. Lane pointed to the flying monkey; Emma turned to see what he pointed at and screamed at the top of her lungs. It took all of five seconds and she was running away from it.

  Mission accomplished.

  Spencer and I exchanged a nod along with a fist punch. Lane came bounding back with a huge grin. “I do good?”

  “You did awesome little man.” I replied giving him his own fist punch.

  “Told you I awesome!” And then he was back to jumping and pumping his fists in the air.

  The evening passed in a blur. Before I knew it Spencer, Justin, Tommy, Aiden and I were on stage helping the Eagles cover band and singing Heartache Tonight. Aiden tried to convince me to propose on stage in front of the entire town. I almost did...but when a drunk Aiden tied a lasso around Sway and pulled her toward the stage, I chickened out. I didn’t particularly want Sway to look back and think of me as drunk and a lasso wrapped around her when she remember how I proposed. Not romantic.

  So I didn’t propose. Instead, I broke out into a solo and got down on my knees in front of her. Sway just laughed, so I leaned forward placing a soft kiss against her stomach and then returned to my seat.

  Someday the timing will be right, but until then, the ring remained in my pocket. I caught a lot of shit from the boys for not doing it.

  Spencer and Aiden hassled me about not doing it on stage.

  “I just...” my fear broke through. “I don’t even know what to say to her.”

  Spencer waved his hand around, spilling beer all over the place. “It’s simple here...” he grabbed a napkin off a nearby picnic table. “You say...I love fucking you. I want you to be the only one I fuck for the rest of my life...marry me!”

  “Really? That’s what you say?” I smacked his forehea
d. “Funny...I thought it was supposed to be romantic and I’m pretty sure the words “fucking you” should not be said.”

  “I’m disgusting...” Spencer replied with a shrug. “Sue me.”

  Aiden nodded in approval, Spencer ignored us.

  Cramming the note in my pocket, I went toward the mechanical bull.

  Gasket – Sway

  “Watch him.”

  I never liked those words. Over the years, they always ended badly for me.

  “Why do I have to be the one to watch him?”

  “Because...I have to take my son and get him into bed before midnight,” Alley explained shifting a sleeping Lane to the other arm. “You gave them the bottle of Jack Daniels, you watch them.”

  “This hardly seems fair.” I mean, yeah, I handed over the bottle but it was either that or Tequila, I chose the better one.

  “Wait until the kid pops out...nothing is ever fair again.”

  “Shouldn’t we tell Jameson that the mascot’s Dana?” I asked Alley hesitantly before she left. Dana Sloan was stalking Jameson, disguised as a bear. Dana Sloan was nice enough, but really strange and had this unhealthy obsession with Jameson.

  “Nah, where’s the fun in that?”

  “He’s going to kill us.”

  “Like I care,” Lane’s head flopped to the side. “Remember don’t lose Spencer and for Christ sakes, make sure he keeps his goddamn clothes on.”

  Alley left after that and I played babysitter. Keeping one eye on Spencer, I felt someone touch my shoulder.

  “Oh hey Sway, how are you holding up with Charlie?” Langley O’Neil, one of the drivers on the World of Outlaw series asked.

  “I’m good.” I replied. My eyes then focused on Jameson on the mechanical bull. Just coming off an injury like he did, that just seemed like a stupid thing to be doing.

  With a smile, Langley walked away leaving me to my bottle of water.

  Do you ever wonder why people go crazy?

  I wonder why they don’t. With everything we have to lose in an instant, I wondered what kept us all from going insane.

  People were constantly asking me how I was doing since they found out about Charlie. How in the hell was I supposed to know? Was there a mood ring built inside of me that I could look at and say well, you know, it’s purple so I guess I’m okay right now.